GRANVILLE, Ohio (October 27, 2021) – The Denison University volleyball team defeated Wittenberg University 3-2 (22-25, 25-11, 25-20, 21-25, 15-9) on Wednesday night inside Livingston Gymnasium to capture the program's first ever North Coast Athletic Conference regular-season championship.

Denison (19-5 overall, 8-0 NCAC) has now won 10 matches in a row for the second time in the last two full seasons under Head Coach Carter Cassell, and it was the first win for the Big Red over Wittenberg (17-7, 7-1) since 1991. The Tigers' stretch of 14 straight NCAC regular-season championships is officially over.

"I'm so proud of this team and this program," spoke Coach Cassell. "This group has worked so hard and has stayed committed to what we are trying to accomplish. They set a conference title as one of their goals at the beginning of the year, and they've focused on continuous improvement. The alums of our program laid the foundation, and we are grateful for all the teams that came before us."

Denison had three double-doubles on the night as Kirby MacKinnon had 52 assists and a career-high 24 digs, Daria Rodriguez had 12 kills and 13 digs, and Lucy Anderson tied her career-high in kills with 18 kills and set a new career-best in blocks with 10.

Sophia Sobota led Denison in kills with a new career-high 22 kills, Jenna Corrao led in digs with 24 followed by Payton McElfresh with a career-high 23 digs, and Sidney Gossard and Corinne Boyd both added five blocks.

In the fifth set, Denison led 4-0 as Anderson and Sobota alternated with kills on the first four points, and then two Wittenberg attack errors followed by a kill by MacKinnon made it 7-0.

Another kill by Anderson made it 8-2, a kill by Rodriguez made it 9-3, and then back-to-back kills by Boyd made it 12-5.

Gossard and Boyd then combined for one of their five assisted blocks to make it 13-7, and then the final point of the regular season was a big solo block by Anderson, one of her seven solo blocks in the match.

It was somewhat of a slow start to the match for Denison, which trailed 15-6 in the first set before coming back to within two at 19-17 and ultimately falling by three points.

However, the Big Red showed they were there to play in the second set and proved it with a huge 11-0 run to make a narrow 12-9 lead and large 23-9 advantage. With Corrao doing the serving, Sobota accounted for six kills during that run, added another kill to finish off the set, and ended with nine kills for the set.

Denison then trailed 12-11 in the third set before a 6-1 run featuring five kills to make it 17-13, and then that run ballooned into an even bigger 12-3 run to make the score 23-15 Big Red. Sobota again had the final kill of the set, this time putting Denison up 2-1.

In the fourth set, neither team led by more than three points until a 7-1 run for Wittenberg turned a 17-16 Denison lead into a 23-18 deficit.

In all, the third set featured six ties and three lead changes, and then the fourth set had eight ties and four lead changes.

With the NCAC tournament now officially scheduled for Friday, November 5, and Saturday November 6, in Granville, Ohio, the Big Red will play a nonconference match at Transylvania University on Saturday, October 30, at 3:30 p.m. in hopes of a positive tune-up before the postseason begins.